Seven-year-old boy left in Japan forest by his parents found alive after almost a week

Aseven-year-old boy, Yamato Tanooka who was abandoned in bear-infested woods by his father as punishment, has been found alive and unharmed after nearly a week of fending for himself in the dangerous forest.

The little boy was found in a building on a Japanese military base about 2.5 miles from where his father left him last Saturday.


His parents left him by the side of a road to punish him for throwing stones at cars but he went missing and they couldn't find him when they returned to pick him up..
His disappearance sparked a massive hunt involving over 130 police and school officials descending on Hokkaido, Japan's largest northern island.

"One of our soldiers was preparing for drills this morning and opened the door of a building on the base, and there he was," a member of Japan's Self-Defence Forces

"When he asked 'are you Yamato?' the boy said yes. Then he said he was hungry, so the soldier gave him some water, bread and riceballs."

The boy's father

Yamato said he "walked through the mountains" until he found the building the soldier found him in, which was unlocked. He drank water from a nearby tap and slept on mattresses spread on the floor.

Yamato was taken to hospital for a check up and apart from having a low body temperature, he is healthy and would be kept overnight as a precaution, a doctor said in a news conference.

The boy's tearful dad Takayuki Tanooka thanked rescuers for their efforts and apologised for causing trouble.
He said:

"We've reflected on what we did and it was really excessive.

"We - well, we loved him before, but I hope to give him even more attention now."

The Island is home to the deadly Ussuri brown bear , which can grow to a massive 550kg - almost 90 stone.
The boy fortunately managed to survive for nearly a week in the densely forested area, where night temperatures fell as low as 7 degrees and heavy rain had fallen, despite wearing only a t-shirt and jeans.

His father said when they left him there as punishment, they almsot immediately returned to the exact place they had left him but couldn't find him. And because he was too embarrassed to admit to what he did to his son, he initially told people that the boy had gotten lost while they were all on a walk but later admitted his mistake and went to the police to request a search on Saturday.

Brown bears have a history of killing humans - with more than 140 people killed in the first 57 years of the 20th century.